1. The petitioner is the plaintiff, who has filed a suit for specific performance. The plaintiff produced an insufficiently stamped agreement for sale. An objection was taken. The trial Court directed payment of deficit stamp duty and penalty at the rate of 10 times the duty. The petitioner aggrieved by the said order has filed this petition. This case and other cases similarly placed more importantly involve the question of jurisdiction of the Court to levy penalty U/S.34 of the Stamp Act (for short, ‘the Act).

2. The Section 39 of the Act, empowers the Deputy Commissioner to levy penalty of Rs.5/- or in the alternative, the penalty not more than 10 times the duty in his discretion. Whereas, Sec.34 does not endow any discretion, the civil court shall have to levy penalty of Rs.5/- or in alternative 10 times the duty. There is conflict in the provisions regarding discretionary powers of the Deputy Commissioner vis-à-vis the Civil Court. This apparently appears hostile discrimination. In other words, when a party who approaches the Civil Court with insufficiently stamped document the Court could alternatively levy penalty 10 times the duty. But when a person similarly place